88 Radiant Facts About Colors That’ll Make Your Sombre Day Bright

For the “horse of a different color” effect on The Wizard of Oz (1939), horses were tinted with lemon, cherry and grape Jello powder, which the horses would persistently try to lick off.

52. The highly expensive paint “Ultramarine blue” is named not after it’s ocean-blue color, but instead, means “from beyond the sea” (i.e. imported from Asia).

53. How squid chooses and holds particular skin colors to help camouflage themselves remains unknown and is particularly interesting because they are completely colorblind.

54. The Arctic reindeer has a layer of tissue in the eye called the tapetum lucidum which lies behind the retina and reflects light back through it to enhance night vision. By changing its color, the tapetum lucidum reflects different wavelengths of light. Its color changes through the seasons from gold to blue.

55. Anytime you see an ingredients list that includes carmine, cochineal extract or natural red 4, you can be sure that there's a little-powdered bug therein.

There exists a waterfall (Blood Falls) in Antarctica from a water source that has never seen sunlight and is completely devoid of oxygen. It's also extremely rich in iron and sodium. When the water is finally exposed to air as it flows out of the glacier, it rusts, coloring the water blood red making it look like the glacier is bleeding.

57. Green and red peppers are not distinct varieties. Rather, green peppers are simply immature versions of red peppers.

58. As a deterrent to poachers, South African authorities inject a strong red dye into rhino horns which is clearly visible and poisonous to humans.

59. The only green over red stoplight in USA world is in Syracuse, New York because some persistent local Irish kids didn't want the red (British) above green (Ireland).

60. The biggest sperm bank in the world turns down redheaded donors because “not enough people want ginger kids.”

Stoplight loosejaw is a deep sea fish that takes advantage of the fact that other fishes can’t see a red light, and illuminates its prey with a beam of red bioluminescence so it can hunt with an effectively invisible beam of light.

62. Karate belts progress from light to dark colors as you progress in rank because in poorer times it was easier and cheaper to keep dying 1 belt a new (darker) color than keep buying new belts.

63. American school buses are yellow because you see yellow faster than any other color, 1.24x faster than red in fact.

64. White asparagus is the same as green asparagus except that it's kept buried when growing so no photosynthesis occurs.

65. Some babies in Asia are born with a Mongolian Blue Spot, a blue birthmark on the lower back and butts that usually disappears after three to five years.

Mandarinfish is one of only two vertebrates known to have blue coloring because of natural cellular pigment. In all other cases of blue colored animals, the color blue is made through the scattering of light.

67. China invented fireworks, but Italy gave them color. Colors are created using metallic powders. Calcium makes orange, sodium makes yellow, and barium makes green. Also, cylindrical tubes create whistling sounds, aluminum flakes make hissing noises, and flash powder makes the loud “booms.”

68. Men and women see colors differently. In general, women are better at discriminating among colors while men excel at tracking fast-moving objects and discerning detail from a distance.

69. The reason that (research) submarines are yellow is because yellow is one of the last few colors to be visible at great depth.

70. There is a 20 storey light spire on a building in downtown Stockholm, and anyone with a smartphone can change the colors on the lights that are shining in it. Its creators hope that the work can stand as a statement on the power of democracy and the power of the public.

Sulfur has all of the primary colors. It melts into a red liquid, burns blue, and is a yellow solid.

72. The pizza Margherita owes its name to Italy's Queen Margherita who in 1889 visited the Pizzeria Brandi in Naples. The Pizzaiolo (pizza maker) on duty that day, Raffaele Esposito created a pizza for the Queen that contained the three colors of the new Italian flag.

73. NES and SNES consoles turn yellow as they age because of a breakdown of a flame retardant chemical added to plastics used on older computer hardware.

74. The most complex eyes throughout the animal kingdom belong to the mantis shrimp, who can manipulate light polarization throughout its entire visible spectrum. That’s at least 10x as many colors in our visible spectrum.

75. Disney Imagineers created two colors (Go Away Green, and No Seeum Gray), which are used to help disguise buildings, bins, and anything else visually distracting, or unappealing.